One Hundred Years of Plenitude Reduced for Clearance Chess Highlights of the 20th Century by FM Graham Burgess, 1999, Gambit Publications Ltd., Figurine Algebraic Notation, Hardcover, 208pp. $27.50 Reviewed by Paul Kollar The sense of closure, together with the urge to recapitulate and summarize, that naturally overtakes us at the end of another spent year is, due to some strange affinity we have for powers of ten, especially pronounced at a decade's finish. At the turn of a century this sensation and need are intensely magnified. Those utterly arbitrary zeroes affect us deeply, as if we have reached, at long last, some real plateau, attained an actual and significant destination. Janus, with his two faces, looks back and forward with a distinctly heightened perspective. Now we have reached, after more than a little anxiousness, an even more portentous crux, a new, thousand-year hash mark that we still can't quite believe. After plenty of fireworks, and some now-dispelled (?) doubts and fears regarding the ostensible beneficence of our latter-day friend and helper, the ubiquitous computer, we're off and running with a ho-hum, back-to-work attitude calm, if not jaded, until perhaps A.D. 3000. But our writers and journalists, our chroniclers and keepers of annals, whether driven by duty or profit, have been working overtime to provide us with a plethora of turn-of-the-century, and goodbye-old-millennium retrospectives of all shapes and sizes. Since sometime last year, and up to just a few weeks ago, what with the mountain of these 00 and 000 reviews, not to mention the already forgotten and quite unlamented Y2K doomsayer tomes, it was getting difficult to squeeze into the nearest mall bookstores. Coffee tables across the land were sagging under the weight of all this history. Perhaps the reason we now seem to be blase about finding ourselves in the 21st Century, and on the lofty edge of the 3rd Millennium, is that we have been so very preoccupied with looking over our collective shoulder at the last leg of our journey. Besides, it's comforting to celebrate our "success" in "muddling through" - swapping war stories, many from actual wars - and maybe just a little unnerving to peer too far into the foggy future, where we may well have to face old dangers again, and certainly confront new ones. The good men and women of Gambit Publications, whom I suspect are moved by duty as well as profit, have been extremely busy, ends of eras or not. They have reason, besides, to face their future with confidence. In a relatively short time they have produced much of interest and value, and much of that has been appreciated and applauded. Graham Burgess and John Nunn, in particular (not to slight John Emms), have been really pumping they are making Reinfeld, Keene, and Pandolfini look like slugs. If these three British gentlemen had put out "only" Nunn's Chess Openings, and nothing else in the last few years, they could legitimately feel and show pride. But that is not the case there has been so much more! Dr. Nunn gave us within the last couple of years, in addition to his very dense NCO, the excellent Secrets of Practical Chess, and the entertaining 101 Brilliant Chess Miniatures, while Mr. Burgess has given us 101 Chess Opening Surprises. [Prior reviews of these four books may be found in The Chess Caf‚ Archives.] That should have been quite enough for Messrs. Burgess and Nunn, but Burgess also put out The Mammoth Book of Chess in 1997, and, with Nunn and Emms, delivered The Mammoth Book of The World's Greatest Chess Games in 1998! These last two books (under a different publisher), the first of which won the British Chess Federation's "Book of the Year" award, are a chunky 500- plus pages each, remarkably inexpensive, and are rich and rewarding "desert island" fare that can keep one busy for years and years. While one can certainly quarrel with the selection of games in the latter, the analysis by Burgess, Nunn, and Emms, aided by software titans, Fritz and Junior, both, is deep thought indeed! Oh, "Wouldn't it be luverly" to take a year off from everything, and spend three or four days on each of the games in this book. Despite the intense preoccupation that would naturally envelop one so immersed in such red-hot productivity, Burgess and Nunn, at least, were not immune from the "mammoth" influence provided by the almost palpable interface of our two most recent millennia. They, though neck-deep in research and writing, were bitten and smitten by the Y2K recap fever bug. And lo, another 20th Century retrospective book was conceived. Burgess, who acknowledges Nunn's suggestion for the book "in the first place," and for "helpful comments throughout," has somehow found time to present us with Chess Highlights of the 20th Century. This decision, regardless of gestation or motivation, is sound enough. After all, chess, as we know it, may not last another century, or even another few decades - Lasker's Macheide is just around the corner in the form of software that may be user-inimical. And the century just passed has seen all the World Champions, even poor Steinitz for some pathetic few months, walk the Earth. Further, the last hundred years have seen enormous changes and drama on several fronts, and has a "stranger than fiction" cast of supporting characters as well. I, like many of us, have a tremendous appreciation for the chess history and players of the 19th Century, and could not know too much about it and them. However, I have to admit that the last century definitely takes the cake, and is probably destined to be the apogee of the game's multi-millennial saga. There have been chess-centered historical surveys before, of course; some focused on the World Champions, some on a nation's extended contribution to the game, others still on the evolution of style, or even openings. Some, such as Eales and Murray's, have attempted to cover "everything" from the game's misty origins to "today." Fauber, with touching modesty, tried his hand at covering only the last five hundred years. Graham Burgess, with Chess Highlights, has rushed to be the first to encapsulate the century bounded by Lasker and the two K's. (The current dilemma over FIDE v. Garry's latest acronym may be described as the remaining "Why two K's ?" problem.) Burgess's new book, in his words, aims to " present a selection of the best and most entertaining chess games from the 20th Century, together with year-by-year accounts of the main chess news stories." He adds that "Chess does not exist in a vacuum, but rather reflects and is affected by events outside our 64 squares." He has therefore taken the rather unusual step of including, again on a year-by-year basis, " brief accounts of the events and achievements that made world news in each year." His chess "news" includes World Championships, qualifying events, important tournaments, team events, some "exceptional" national championships, USSR Championships, and " notable achievements in junior, women's and correspondence chess [and] notable chess-player births and deaths." His "real world" news, he maintains, was " focused on the stories that made the greatest impact on the world [with] most space devoted to discoveries, inventions, conflicts, wars, disasters, social upheavals and technological breakthroughs." The author's simple plan has manifested itself in one hundred chapters, each of two pages in length (except for the one-page years, 1915-1920, which were long on death and destruction, but short on chess.) Each chapter, or year, is formatted identically (with some exceptions) as follows: a "headline" printed in bold type, followed by two or three columns of reportage, games, and analysis; a number of concise "Chess News in Brief" items; and finally a few "World News in Brief" entries that purportedly put all the foregoing in perspective. A sample chapter follows from the crashing end of the "Roaring 20's" (the first game has been often defined, correctly, as a sorcerer's black magic!): 1929 Alekhine retains the World Title in a one-sided match against Bogolyubow Good results for Nimzowitsch and Capablanca Nimzowitsch wins the Karlsbad tournament with 15/21, ahead of Capablanca and Spielmann (both 14 «). [Diagram with Black to move] White: Kc3, Rd5; pawns - a2, b2, c4, e4, f3, g2, h2 Black: Ke6, Rd8; pawns - a6, b7, c5, d6, f6, g6, h7 H. Mattison A. Rubinstein Karlsbad 1929 Clearly, Black cannot be better here. However, Rubinstein is able to exploit a number of innocent-looking inaccuracies by his opponent, and win the game. 23 f5!? 24 exf5+ 24 Kd3 fxe4+ 25 Kxe4 Rb8 followed by b5 gives Black counterplay. 24 gxf5 25 Rd2 25 g4 fxg4 26 fxg4 Rf8 27 Rh5 and White should survive. 25 b5 26 b3 This passive reply lets Black's initiative grow. 26 b4 is likely to liquidate the queenside pawns. 26 h5 Black wants to target the g2-pawn. 27 g3 f4! Rubinstein keeps giving his opponent awkward decisions. 28 Re2+ 28 g4 hxg4 29 fxg4 Rh8 keeps the white pawns immobile, while the black f-pawn will be free to advance. 28 Kf5 29 Re4 fxg3 30 hxg3 Rg8 31 Rf4+ 31 g4+ hxg4 32 Rxg4 and now 32 Rh8 (32 b4+ 33 Kd3 Rxg4 34 fxg4 Kf4 35 g5 Kxg5 36 Ke4 Kf6 37 Kd5 Ke7 38 Kc6 Ke6 39 Kb6 is a draw; 32 Rxg4? 33 fxg4 Kxg4 34 cxb5 axb5 35 a4 and White wins) leaves White with some problems to solve. 31 Ke6 32 Re4+ 32 g4 is met by 32 h4. 32 Kd7 33 g4 Rf8! 34 Re3 h4! 35 a4 bxa4 36 bxa4 Re8 37 Kd2? 37 Rd3 is a better try. 37 Rxe3 38 Kxe3 d5! 0-1 [Diagram with White to move] White: Kh1, Qa3, Rd1, Re1, Bb1, Nd2; pawns - a2, b2, f5, g2, h3 Black: Kg8, Qd5, Rc4, Rc8, Bb7, Bg7; pawns - a5, b6, d6, f7, g5, h6 M. Vidmar M. Euwe Karlsbad 1929 Black has just chosen the wrong way to grab a loose white pawn on d5. 29 Be4! Rxe4 30 Nxe4 Qxf5 Black was doubtless intending this as an exchange sacrifice to exploit the poorly defended white king. However, there is a snag. 31 Nxd6! Bxg2+ 32 Kxg2 Rc2+ 33 Kh1 Qf4 So, how does White prevent mate on h2? Answer: by giving mate himself! 34 Re8+ Bf8 34 Kh7 35 Qd3+ picks off the black rook. 35 Rxf8+! Kxf8 36 Nf5+ 1-0 36 Kg8 37 Qf8+ Kxf8 38 Rd8#. Alekhine wins the Bradley Beach tournament with 8 « /9, ahead of L. Steiner (7). [Diagram with White to move] White: Kg1, Qe2, Ra1, Rf1, Bd5, Bg5, Nc3, Nf3; - a2, b2, e4, f2, g2, h3 Black: Kg8, Qc7, Ra8, Rf8, Bc8, Bd6, Nd7, Ne5; - a6, b7, c5, f7, g7, h7 A. Alekhine H. Steiner Bradley Beach 1929 Here we see a Queen's Gambit accepted gone somewhat wrong for Black. Alekhine now attacks mercilessly. 14 Nh4 With two ideas: Nf5 and f4. 14 Nb6 15 f4 Nc6 16 f5! A very concrete move typical of Alekhine's style. He perceives that the threat of f6 and control of e6 are more significant than the weakening of the dark squares. 16 Ne5 17 Qh5 Threatening 18 f6. 17 Re8 18 Rf4 While this move carries no immediate threat, it calmly brings another piece nearer the black king and prepares to bring the other rook into the battle. Black now makes an unsuccessful attempt to defuse the situation. 18 Be7? 19 f6! Bf8 19 g6, which would have been the answer to f6 if White had played it earlier, now fails to the combination 20 Nxg6! hxg6 21 Bxf7+! Kxf7 22 fxe7+. 20 fxg7 Bxg7 21 Raf1 Be6 22 Nf5 The attack is now overwhelming. 22 Bxd5 23 Nxg7 Ng6 24 Nxe8 Rxe8 25 Nxd5 1-0 Chess News in Brief Alekhine comfortably defends the World Championship against Bogoljubow, winning the match 15 « - 9 «. Capablanca wins the Budapest tournament with 10«/13 ahead of Rubinstein (9 «) and Tartakower (8). Rubinstein wins the Rogaska Slatina tournament with 11«/15, ahead of Flohr (10«). Verlinsky wins the 6th USSR Championship. Sultan Khan wins the British Championship. Alekhine makes an extensive tour of America. Richard Reti dies. Tigran Petrosian [World Champion 1963-9] is born. Hans Berliner [winner of the 5th Correspondence World Championship, 1965-8] is born. World News in Brief The Wall Street Crash marks the beginning of the Great Depression, which brings about an industrial slump and widespread poverty, first in the United States, and consequently around the world over the following years. Following a deal between Mussolini and the Catholic Church, the Vatican state is founded in Rome. Conflict between China and Russia flares up on the Manchurian border. Britain declares martial law in Jerusalem following fighting between Jews and Arabs. There are skirmishes on the USA-Mexico border. The All-Indian National Council demands independence for India. There is civil unrest in Berlin. Trotsky is refused asylum in both France and Britain. In Britain, Frank Whittle proposes the use of a jet engine for propelling aeroplanes. ****************************************************** ****************** The foregoing excerpt, chosen mindfully, is not necessarily typical or even fairly representative of the other ninety-nine chapters with respect to content, but is reasonably illustrative of the apportioning and layout of the material. Some chapters have more or less (or even none at all) "Chess News in Brief" items some years have more or less "World News." There are almost always three games per chapter, though all the games in this book are, to use Burgess' term, joined in the early middlegame. He has omitted opening moves to make, he feels, " the fairest comparison between different eras," believing that an examination of how opening play has developed in the 20th Century is " an interesting topic, but to do it justice would require a whole book." This was a questionable decision, the saving of space notwithstanding. He might have included the opening moves with no comment and let the "examination" of opening play fall to the reader, "justice" be damned. I think it nearly always a mistake to truncate or behead game scores much more is lost than gained thereby. Other criticisms involve the selection and analysis of games the heart of the book. As noted above, Burgess, in his Introduction, says that he opted for " the best and most entertaining " games, yet later, in the same Introduction, declares that he " sought to strike a balance between presenting the best and most important chess games, and choosing less familiar material." [italics mine] So is it to be "highlights", or "esoterica", after all? This vacillation pervades the book's game collection and has resulted in the painful exclusion of worthy and famous contests in favor of lesser known, or even unknown games that, while worth a look, don't necessarily qualify for the century's highlight status. Among the missing: Lasker Capablanca 1914; Capablanca Tartakover 1924; Euwe Alekhine 1935 (26th match game "The Pearl of Zandvoort"); Fine Keres 1938; Keres Reshevsky 1953; Byrne Evans 1965; Botvinnik Portisch 1968; Bronstein Ljubojevic 1973; and Karpov Kasparov 1988 (the "Belfort Variation). Instead of these and other omissions, the author offers such fare as: Lazard Gibaud 1909 (this from a year that saw the great tournament at St. Petersburg); Nicifor Kramer 1921; Grohmann Engels 1934; Rojahn Klavestad 1944; Gereben Troianescu 1951; and Yurtaev Kengis 1973. So much for my erudition! If Burgess wanted to do "justice" to such "less familiar material" as these selections, he might have considered the distinct possibility that such a desire "would require a whole book" with quite another title (e.g. Lesser-Known Chess Masterpieces: 1906-1915 edited by Fred Wilson). The level of analysis, from whatever source, is of varying depth, and too often fails to match the quality that was uniformly reached in The Mammoth Book of The World's Greatest Chess Games. Out of the near 300 game segments given, only a minority has been graced with highlight-of-the-century caliber notation. These latter include Capablanca Bernstein 1911; Tal Smyslov 1959; Fischer Stein 1967; Korchnoi Kasparov 1982; Kasparov Portisch 1983; and Ivanchuk Yusupov 1991. The bulk of the games are generally analyzed to a degree falling between the excellence of these, and the much lighter effort seen in the above excerpt for 1929. Burgess' chapter intro's, or major headlines are often not elaborated or explained in the following narrative and games/analysis section. 1976, for example, commences with Karpov proves he is a worthy Champion by dominating tournament chess. Yet the following games include no Karpov game, but rather Hodgson Paunovic (from the not-epochal London Belgrade telex match), and other juvenilia by Kasparov (age 13). In 1979 he begins with Garry Kasparov achieves sensational results, but we see nothing whatsoever from them. Kasparov is not mentioned again in the chapter until a rather tiny, two-line entry in the "in brief" section. In 1981 the headline Karpov comfortably defends his title Great results for Timman is followed by nary a Karpov or Timman game. And again, in 1987, Kasparov survives a scare in Seville, where one of the most thrilling and dramatic World Championship matches ever took place. There isn't a single game from the event, not even the 24th game, which was incredibly tense, absorbing, and historically significant in spades. The above 1929 excerpt is typical in this regard. There is no quarrel with the "Chess News in Brief" section. It appears to be both comprehensive and accurate, and I am comforted by the pleasant acknowledgment that Ken Whyld assisted in checking historical facts. I also appreciated the 98% bias-free reporting of politically tinged entries. A suggestion for "the next time around" include entries marking the publication of chess classics, such as My Chess Career, Lasker's Manual of Chess, Masters of the Chess Board, My 60 Memorable Games, etc. There are some historical chess issues that still arouse heat but not much light. In the century Burgess would cover, there are: the Lasker Schlechter match arrangements; the Lasker Janowski match, or matches questions; the Alekhine Capablanca quarrel (who was actually avoiding whom?); the anti-Semitic articles attributed to Alekhine (did he fall, or was he pushed?); the Botvinnik Keres rivalry (politically influenced or not?); and the Botvinnik Bronstein match (politically influenced or not?). Burgess has chosen to say little or nothing about these still- inflammatory questions, preferring not to highlight them at all. One wonders if they will "go away" in this new century. "Chess does not exist in a vacuum" say Burgess. Indeed, nothing but nothing does so. Unfortunately, his wish to place all this chess material in its historical context by rounding out his year-chapters with various entries in the "World News in Brief" section is not granted. These almanac-style one-liners just don't do it. Besides the bit about "skirmishes on the USA-Mexico border" in the above 1929 sample, we can also find reminders of the following: 1908 "In Portugal, a revolution fails; later the king and crown prince are assassinated."; 1928 "In London, the River Thames bursts its banks, causing flooding in low-lying areas of the city."; 1976 "Rhodesia moves towards majority rule."; and 1998 "Benoit Lecomte becomes the first person to swim the Atlantic." How, in the name of Thucydides, Macaulay, Gibbon, and Toynbee does stuff like this help us understand anything, let alone chess evolution? One's comprehension of the world, or, (going down much, much finer) of the fractious cancellation and re-scheduling of the first K vs. K matches in 1985 is hardly enhanced by learning that "In Britain, the miners call off their strike" or that there was a volcanic eruption in Columbia. This is history reduced to beer nuts. There is no attempt to integrate the more momentous and significant entries with chess history or development, or vice- versa. It may be that it can not be easily done. Our chess is more than a little like Hesse's Das Glasperlenspiel, a beautiful but rather arcane pursuit practiced by a self-absorbed elite removed from normal society in remote Castalia. It is on the fringe people often retreat to it, and history often only grazes it. The occasional mutual reflection of chess and the world can be examined better with a more subtle eye than is open here. I am compelled to view this inclusion of "World News" as misguided, ill advised, poorly executed, and often ridiculous. Precious space (10 20 % of the book) that should have been used for chess material that was regrettably slighted or omitted was largely wasted. If, somehow, our world history were seamlessly integrated with the chess material, then the other omissions would have been somewhat forgivable. As it was, however, the "history" came across as gratuitous, irrelevant, tacked-on afterthoughts that struck one mostly as a distraction. I do not like my milk with lemon. On the other hand, the inclusion of photos was a blessing, and entirely appropriate for a book of this kind. Burgess provided thirty-nine in a special section within the book, and another ten "thumbnail" pictures right on the jacket-less, plastic-coated cover (it's that kind of hardbound). But again, for a book that would cover a century, we are short-changed. There are no pictures of Schlechter, Marshall, Reshevsky, Larsen, Chigorin, Spielmann, Fine, Sultan Khan, Flohr, Najdorf, Gligoric, Purdy, Ivkov, Uhlmann, or Hubner. Also missing, from a British publication, are Atkins, Thomas, Yates, Penrose, and Miles, England's first FIDE GM. And, oh yes, Alekhine, who figured somewhat in 20th Century chess, is not pictured in the book, but only on the back cover (though in good company). Space in the book was found, however, for Zsophia Polgar, Irina Krush, and Pia Cramling but not Vera Menchik, Nona Gaprindashvili, or Xie Jun. Is this not incorrect political correctness? It should be no surprise to the reader who has stayed with me throughout this rather grim appraisal that I believe this work to be a disappointment, if not a failure. Some of the content is good (or better) as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far at all. The omissions are obvious, the superficial is too apparent, and much of what is included is neither good nor welcome. The author did not match up to the standards and promise of either Gambit Publications, or his own earlier output. Burgess (and Nunn) had a good and timely idea, but sound strategy was again hampered severely by dubious tactics. For such a work much more space and time are needed. Burgess is, perhaps, too busy. It appears that he painted himself into a corner, rushing. Cafferty and Taimanov took 224 pages to do The Soviet Championships (with crosstables!), a much more limited endeavor. Soltis' Soviet Chess 1917 1991 [reviewed here beautifully by Taylor Kingston see Archives] is 450 pages long. For a book that features "only" highlights of chess's most prolific century, a more "mammoth" volume is called for. Couple these self-imposed spatial limitations with a rather blatant and hurried attempt to leap onto the Great Millennial Commercial Bandwagon and you are almost bound to come up short and wanting. Top it off with a bloated price tag and you've really lost me. For those who cannot resist books of this type (I sympathize, as I am among them), and may want this one if only as a "draft", or "for the record", I recommend waiting until this book finds its way to the remaindered table and is reduced for clearance. The kind of book that would really do justice to the chess of the last century, the ideal book that I have in mind, may come around only once every hundred years. In the meantime, if the Y2K bug has moved you to review and retrospect, or if you simply love chess and history, and want to take a measured, thoughtful, and deeper look at the last 100 years, permit me the following recommendations as well. The aforementioned works by Cafferty, Taimanov, and Soltis, together with The U.S. Chess Championship by McCormick and Soltis will do you very well. They are, each and all, excellent. If you want merely to browse through an almanac when you're away from the board, then try The New York Times Almanac 2000. As for "real" history, try J. A. S. Grenville's A History of the World in the Twentieth Century , or, Twentieth Century: History of the World, 1901 to 2000 by J. M. Roberts. Take your time.